CVE-2022-0280
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedA race condition vulnerability exists in the QuickClean feature of McAfee Total Protection for Windows prior to 16.0.43 that allows a local user to gain privilege elevation and perform an arbitrary file delete. This could lead to sensitive files being deleted and potentially cause denial of service. This attack exploits the way symlinks are created and how the product works with them.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceA race condition vulnerability in McAfee Total Protection for Windows QuickClean feature (versions prior to 16.0.43) allows a local authenticated user to achieve privilege elevation and perform arbitrary file deletion by exploiting how the product creates and handles symlinks.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE dataall versionsCVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- High
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify McAfee Total Protection is installedCheck for McAfee Total Protection in Programs and Features or via command: 'Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product | Where-Object {$_.Name -like "*McAfee*Total*Protection*"}'Affected if McAfee Total Protection is not installed on the system, this CVE does not apply
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Determine the installed version of McAfee Total ProtectionLocate the version information through the product UI (Help > About), Windows Programs and Features, or using: 'Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product | Where-Object {$_.Name -like "*McAfee*Total*Protection*"} | Select-Object Name, Version'Affected if The installed version cannot be determined or the product is not present
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Compare installed version against affected rangeCheck if the installed version is prior to 16.0.43. The affected range is any version before 16.0.43.Affected if The installed version is 16.0.42 or earlier, indicating the system is running a vulnerable version
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Verify QuickClean feature availabilityCheck if QuickClean component is present and accessible. This may be visible in the McAfee Total Protection UI or through the product's component listing.Affected if QuickClean feature is not present or not accessible, the specific exploitation vector may not be available
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Confirm local user contextVerify that standard user accounts exist on the system. The vulnerability requires a local authenticated user to exploit the race condition.Affected if The system has only one user with administrator privileges, the exploitation scenario is limited but the vulnerable code still exists in unpatched versions
The system is affected if McAfee Total Protection for Windows is installed with a version prior to 16.0.43, regardless of whether QuickClean has been used, because the vulnerable symlink handling code exists in the affected versions.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
dbcve · scopedUpdate McAfee Total Protection for Windows to version 16.0.43 or later to patch the vulnerability. Prior to deployment, verify the update does not conflict with existing enterprise security controls.
McAfee Total Protection for Windows 16.0.43 or later
- Upgrade McAfee Total Protection for Windows to version 16.0.43 or later
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-0280 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-0280 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data